Bamenda Offers Alternative for Plastics

The North West has stated preparedness to stand by government's campaign against plastics with a lot to offer in alternatives. In effect, the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council, Ndumu Nji Vincent says the North West has enough to show in natural leaves and papers that could be recycled to replace the headaches posed by plastics that litter, block gutters, streams and cause floods. It is against this backdrop that the Government Delegate has urged the government to extend the imminent ban on plastics to cover wreaths, artificial flowers and plastic toys.

The event was the 4th lap of the sensitisation tour against plastics that took the Minister of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development to Bamenda on April 2, 2014. Sketches, messages, question and answer session summed up the event conceived to feature the negative effects of plastics and the need to check them out.

It was a rare moment for the visiting Minister, Hele Pierre to stress the raison d'etre of the decision to ban plastics. He revisited the text that prescribes the correction of what has been neglected so far in the regularization of the sector. He said the good health of all is crucial in the imminent ban while job creation will equally emerge with the government's commitment to recycle 40 percent of total plastics circulating in Cameroon. Among the negative effects associated with plastics, Minister Hele Pierre said they prevent or slow down the penetration of water into the soil and hamper the development of plant roots. It also emerged that animals that swallow plastics suffer internal problems. Away from that, they make the landscape ugly and are to blame for floods when they block gutters and streams. They are also by products of hydrocarbons with dangerous effects while the burning of plastics release chloride and other chemical components that could lead to cancer. The sensitization campaign also took the Minister to the dump site in Mankon.